New Leaves
by Vivacious Winter
Summary: Shikamaru finds himself in a whirlwind of a confusing break-up after witnessing the end of an argument between Gaara and Temari. What is this teenager's now ex-girlfriend hiding? He pushes to overcome the break-up while subconciously solving. Please R&R.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

To say that Shikamaru adored Temari was perhaps the world's largest understatement. Though he would not, or rather, could not bring himself to say the words aloud, for fear of troublesome reactions, he loved her more than anything that had ever existed. When he got up in the morning to begin his day, hers was the face he thought of. When he faced troubles of massive proportions, she was the one he fought to see again. That is why, when she urged him to travel the many miles between their lands, he quickly agreed without question. That is why he stood there, before the gates of Suna with excitement churning in his stomach, lighting up the dark eyes set in an expressionless face.

"Good afternoon, sir. May I see your profile?" Shikamaru's gaze shifted back from the sand-smoothed shape of the Kazekage's mansion to look at the gate guard. He was old compared to Shikamaru's mere seventeen years, but the Konoha native knew the ancient guard as two other people. From frequent crossings between Konoha and Suna, Shikamaru knew him as a humorous friend. From only one mock-battle, he also knew him as a formidable opponent.

"It is good to see you again, Minoru," Shikamaru greeted as he reached for his passport. He withdrew his small booklet from the pocket of his worn flak jacket and it changed hands. "How have you been?"

"Fair enough," Minoru replied honestly. He smudged a small stamp across one page of the book and handed it back to Shikamaru. "My eldest son is finally sending his youngest child off to our Academy as my youngest daughter plans to get married. Other than that, I have no news to report."

"No news is good news," Shikamaru recited, returning his profile to the pocket he had pulled it from. "I will see you again, soon." He gave a small wave and turned towards the tower that was the Kazekage's mansion.

As he walked through Suna in the direction of largest building, many people called out greetings to him. After so many trips to Suna to not only visit Temari but to act as an ambassador from Konoha, the majority of the village people knew him by face if not by name. Shopkeepers and market-goers alike raised their hands in salutation. Shikamaru smiled and nodded his responses to all. After all, there was no other place that welcomed him as heartily as Suna. Admittedly, after a particularly difficult, well-publicized mission, he was greeted warmly in Konoha upon return, but it did not compare to the amiable air in this sandy village.

The friendliness welled up in his chest, lasting the entire remainder of the trip to the huge double doors that guarded the entrance of the mansion. Upon opening the doors, it was apparent that the mansion, like the gates into the village, was manned by a ninja guard. Shikamaru, after entering, found himself the target of an unknown kunoichi's smile. He returned it only tentatively.

"Er…hello," he said. The female ninja raised her hand in greeting and grinned only wider.

"Good afternoon, Shikamaru." Before he could register the fact that this unknown character knew his name, the woman answered his unprepared questions. "Lady Temari said that if a Leaf Ninja were to enter, to let him pass without question. She is just up the stairs, I believe." The woman bowed slightly and turned around. Shikamaru shrugged and trekked up the stairs that led into the main greeting hall. As he gained the landing, an interesting sight met his eyes.

Temari sat with her face in her hands on the stairs that led to her personal quarters. Gaara stood facing her, face contorted with anger and hands raised in the air as if he had just finished arguing with, and winning against, her. Shikamaru coughed uneasily to alert them of his presence only to be met with an uncharacteristically dirty look from the village leader. The glare seemed to stretch for many moments before the young Kazekage turned with a rustle of his heavy robes and stormed away from them. Shikamaru found himself running to Temari's side. When, however she looked up at him with dry, confused eyes, he came up short and slowed to a walk.

"I-" he started. "You-… What-?" His usually well-thought-out plans eluded him now. He resorted to accepting any form of communication that slipped out. Temari shook her head, the confused look trading with a hardened one before she stood up.

"It's about lunch time," she said. "Perhaps I should have you fed after your long trip." Temari shuffled off in the direction of the vast kitchens, leaving Shikamaru walking slowly in her wake, trying not to step on her purple train. His mind was attempting to wrap around any possible cause of the tense situation he had just walked into.

Minutes late, he sat over a large plate of food, across from Temari, who had a similar amount on hers. He said his thanks before beginning to eat with a satisfied growl erupting from his stomach; No food beat Temari's food. It was a moment before he looked up and realized that Temari was not eating off of her own plate, but instead staring out of the large windows that overlooked the village. This was odd because, for the entire time that he had known her, Temari had never tiptoed around food the way some other women did. She had politely, but aggressively, stated her appetite and then had no shame in eating any myriad of things in front of him. It was, in fact, one of the greatest things he knew about her. He set down his chopsticks and carefully swallowed what he was chewing.

"Temari, what is wrong?" He asked, wincing when his voice boomed in the great empty hall. Her gaze turned from the window to his concerned face and immediately and abruptly fell to her lap. He reached a hand out to touch hers but she withdrew it and stood up, walking to the window she had just been looking out of from the table.

"What do you want from me?" She asked quietly. So quietly, in fact, that Shikamaru almost did not hear the question. He stood as well and crossed the room to where she stood. He looked out of the clear glass at the bustling of the market below. He opened his mouth to say something, but none of his thoughts would form the appropriate words.

"You don't have to answer," she said, her voice lowering closer to monotone with every syllable. She chewed on her lip for a minute before turning away from the eyes that had turned away from the market scene to study her face. "Shikamaru… I don't think you should have to return to Suna to see me."

He thought about this for a moment. His mind split into two completely equal halves. One side of his brain alerted him to her previous tone and actions and prepared his body for any pain that would come with the idea of her refusal to see him anymore. The other half of his brain pulsed adrenaline through his body because surely she meant that the trip was too long and hard to endure and that she would follow him to Konoha to live there. He decided to speak along the lines that one side of his mind was pushing wishful thinking.

"The trip isn't that bad," he said. "But if you would like to come to Konoha, we can find a residence there."

"No," she replied, confirming the other half of his theories. "What I mean is I… don't want you to return to Suna to see me." There was something hidden under the many layers of her voice that he could not quite place. If the very thing were not tearing him apart from the inside-out, Shikamaru might have registered it as pain.

He thought of many things at once. He could walk away this instant and never return, and very much of his will-power demanded he do just that. He could spill one-thousand break-up clichés and try to persuade her otherwise. A lot of his heart and mind told him to just say the three words that had often choked him up… even in the most passionate times of their relationship. Instead, he sufficed with a different selection of speech.

"I'm sorry for whatever I've done," he said and turned on his heel to walk out of the room. He admitted it to himself as he had crossed the entire distance of the dining hall: He had walked slow, hoping that she might turn around and laugh about this joke. As he crossed the threshold into the entrance hall, however, he willed himself not to look back. He knew it was over.

He crossed the entrance hall in the same manner that he crossed the village, and ultimately, the desert. His head was down, his hands were thrust deep into his pockets, his heart had slowed to nothing but the most necessary thuds and his breathing came through what felt like a constricted straw. He did not cry, but he did not force himself to think about why he was not crying. It took most of the concentration he had to trudge back home without thinking, seeing as the action was what came easiest to him. It seemed that he was moving through thick mud in every way until he reached the doors to his home.

"Welcome back, Shikamaru. That wasn't a-" The guard ninja's voice droned to a stop as Shikamaru passed by without a greeting. The brunette's feet took him all the way home before he even began to register how tired he was. He kicked off his shoes, and without receiving a salutation from either his mother or his father, fell into bed and slept.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

"He's come out for meals and been on two singular missions, but other than that… it's like he doesn't exist. We haven't heard him speak in nearly a month." The voice slipped through Shikamaru's subconscious. The voice sounded vaguely familiar from through his pillow and he barely wondered who it might be. "I feel like I don't have a son anymore." The voice caught with emotion and his brain told him that was uncharacteristic for whoever was speaking. _Oh_, he thought, _my mother_. He rolled over, away from the light that came through the paper coverings on his window.

"Do you know what happened before he started this?" It was another female voice; slightly shrill through its business-like tone, as if the owner was panicking under a calm façade. Shikamaru pulled the blanket up over his head: anything to drown out the noise.

"He returned from Suna and went straight to bed. We didn't even know he was home until he starting mumbling in his sleep when Shikaku walked by." There was a sigh that punctuated the end of this statement. "I wish he knew how worried his father and I are worried about him."

"We're just as worried," said the other female voice, slightly reproachful.

"I didn't mean to suggest that you and Chouji don't care," Yoshino said. "Perhaps if we wrote to Temari, she would consider coming to get him out of bed." Shikamaru did not care to comprehend any of the conversation until he heard her name, and it honestly ripped a hole through his lungs to hear. Suddenly, it occurred to him that the two women were discussing him and they thought that… he could not bear to think her name, was an antidote.

"That won't be necessary," said the other woman, anger dripping in her voice. The door to his room burst open and he was immediately aware of the bright sunlight shining up from his hardwood floor, glaring through the small hole he had left in his blanket to breathe. He felt weight on the edge of his mattress and a hand on his shoulder.

"Shikamaru?" When he felt his body being shaken slightly, he closed his eyes tighter as if to will the intruder away. The girl did not give up. "Shikamaru! I know you're awake, damnit! I didn't come here to be ignored."

Shikamaru sighed and sat up in bed, rubbing his bleary eyes. He turned and looked at the female sitting on his bed, only to be greeted by the sight of Ino Yamanaka, fully dressed in her ninja gear and looking at him with an unreadable expression on her face. Yoshino cleared her throat uneasily before turning and walking away from the awkward situation. Shikamaru just continued to sit there and try to discern the emotions crossing Ino's face. Concern, anger, guilt, and a little fear?

"Oh, Shikamaru. What did she do to you?" It was funny in a very humorless way: In just a few words from his mother and one look at his helpless countenance, Ino had summed up an idea of what had occurred, and Shikamaru was thankful for this. He did not want to explain anything. He just wanted…

"We need to get you out of this room," she said when he uncharacteristically laid his head in her lap. He sighed heavily; he would not cry, he had cried on his own and he was done with that. What was left was nothing but a shell with a painful crack in it. He would leave without complaint if she urged him to do so, but he would not be good for much else.

"Come on," she said, sitting him up so that she could rise and walk to his closet. She opened it and ticked her fingers quickly across his wardrobe. Two small metallic clangs rang through the silent room as Ino pulled a shirt and a pair of pants from their hangers. She dropped them on the bed and crossed the room to his dresser. She pulled the top drawer open and sifted through a collection of underclothes. There was a soft sound as a pair of boxers became airborne and landed on Shikamaru's head. In a different time, or different situation, Shikamaru might have laughed at this, or even yelled at Ino for going through his drawers. Now, however, he sat in a neutral silence.

"Go take a shower and get dressed," Ino said dismissively. "I trust you can still do that on your own?" Shikamaru nodded dumbly and grabbing the clothes that were strewn across his bed, took off for the bathroom. In a trained numbness that locked his jaw, he padded his way to the shower on bare feet and went through the motions of a short shower.

Not too long after he was dressed, there came a small knock at the door. He walked to it, feeling absolutely no need to use his voice. He opened it slowly, coming face-to-face with Ino as he did so. She sighed and walked into the bathroom, pushing him onto the toilet and snatching a brush off of the bathroom counter.

"Shikamaru," Ino said, running her fingers through his soft, wet hair before following with the brush. Apparently, what she had to say to him died in her throat because she just sighed again. His own came after hers; it felt nice to be clean and Ino's hands in his hair did not exactly feel bad. He found that some of his numbness was dripping off with the water from his shower. He heard the elastic sound of a hair band and then his hair was pulled tight against his scalp as Ino tied it in its typical ponytail.

"There," she said calmly. Realizing she missed a small lock of hair, she smoothed it back from his forehead. Wrapping her arms about his shoulders and resting her chin on the top of his head, she spoke. "Do you think you can pull it together to see Chouji?" Shikamaru thought about it for a moment. Chouji, his best friend in the entire world, would be just as worried, if not more, than his parents and Ino. If he should put on a happy face for anyone, it would be Chouji.

"I… suppose I can." He stood, Ino's chin falling from the top of his head, as he was slightly taller than her. She smiled and turned to leave. A feeling of gratitude swelled in his chest for a moment and he reached out to touch her arm. She turned, eyes full of questions, at the contact.

"Yes?"

"Thank you," he said. She grinned warmly and nodded before exiting the bathroom. He took a moment to look at himself in the mirror and was surprised by what he saw. All of the color he had obtained from numerous missions and trips across the desert was drained completely from his face. He was pale and thin, too. He thought back on the past week, only. He remembered eating only once, and knew that this erratic eating behavior probably stretched back to when… he shrugged and made a mental note to eat more often.

He exited the house in time to see Ino smiling up at a bird in the sky. He winced when the sunlight hit him full in the face, to Ino's amusement. She giggled to herself at his ridiculous countenance. Then, looping her arm in his, led him out of the Nara complex.

All through the village, people waved at him in happy greetings. Words and phrases like "Haven't seen you in a while!" and "Where have you been hiding?" followed him up and down the streets of Konoha. This registered as a very minor shock to him, that people had noticed his absence. He raised a hand in an unsmiling salutation to everyone who said hello to him and carried on his way, but not before jamming his hands back into his pockets.

"You might try looking a little more personable," he heard Ino whisper in his ear. "Some of these people think you had fallen ill and were worried about you." She looked at him expectantly and he tried on a small smile; It did not reach his eyes. She rolled her eyes at his feeble attempt. As he saw Sakura disappearing down another street, hand in hand with Naruto, he struggled to say something that would take his mind off of holding hands with a certain Suna kunoichi.

"How are you and Chouji?" He asked, without turning his gaze from the… Were they a new couple? Ino looked to where the inspiration for this question came from and laughed.

"We broke up a long time ago, Shikamaru."

"Why? What happened?" He asked, suddenly treading in dangerous waters in his own mind, if not in Ino's.

"Well," she laughed. "It turns out that we really weren't that interested in each other. I think it was more of a confused friendship, really. Easy come, easy go, though." She shrugged and looked up the road to their destination: the barbeque restaurant. She then chuckled and raised a hand in greeting to someone. "Speak of the devil," she said, "and the devil shall come."

Shikamaru looked up immediately to see Chouji waving happily at Ino. When Chouji made eye contact with Shikamaru, however, his hand faltered in the air and then dropped completely to his side. Shock was written all over the young man's face, and the shock soon turned into a scowl. Shikamaru stopped dead in his tracks, caught off guard by Chouji's sudden hostility.

"No, come on!" Ino said, pulling Shikamaru back to a start and arriving in front of Chouji, who was still focusing on glaring at Shikamaru. "Well, let's eat shall we?" Ino said, with an air of breaking the tension. Both males grunted their affirmation and entered the restaurant.

Twenty silent, moody minutes later, a bewildered Shikamaru sat scowling at the ceiling while an angry Chouji waited impatiently for the food to arrive. Finally, Ino slammed her fists down on the table, rattling the silverware and stood up.

"I'm going to the ladies' room! When I come back, you two better be talking!" Chakra rolled off of her in thick waves, assaulting the senses of both boys. When the last of her purple skirt disappeared around the door, Shikamaru found the strength to speak.

"What's your problem?"

"My problem? You come out of a six week silence and ask me what MY problem is?" Chouji asked, glaring across the table at his best friend.

"What did I do?"

"Well, I guess we can start at the beginning," Chouji said, beginning to raise his voice. "First, you take off to Suna without letting anyone know where you're going or why," he said.

"You and Ino were on a mission!"

"Then, you come home after only a day there and basically disappear off the map. No one hears from you for six weeks. Do you have any idea the things that have been running through my mind? And my thoughts don't even compare with Ino's! That girl doesn't cry for anything and she cried when you wouldn't come to our usual team dinner!" Chouji was shouting now and drawing the attention of every other patron in the restaurant. A knife, burning with guilt, sliced through Shikamaru's chest, irritating the crack that ran over his heart. All anger and bewilderment was gone from his blood. He hung his head and whispered his next words.

"I'm sorry." Shikamaru's sudden forfeit of the argument caught Chouji off-guard. He sat bat in his seat, and took a deep breath.

"I forgive you," Chouji said. "But what even happened-"

"I'm sorry that you had to take the weight of my absence on your shoulders, but I c-…" He took a deep shuddering breath when the sentence fell short. "I can't talk about it right now. I think Ino has an idea, so… yeah. I guess talk to her," he said, looking away as the woman in question sat down. Chouji nodded, guilt starting to settle in his own stomach.

"Okay." Silence wracked the table for a minute before Ino spoke.

"Tomorrow starts the Fire Festival, guys," she said with a smile. "We should all go together."

Shikamaru thought about it. The Fire Festival celebrated the date of when Konoha was acknowledged as an independent power in the Fire Country. The entire day was filled with a grand festival, complete with dancing, music, food, and games. After the sun set in the evening, the night sky was lit on fire with the Fire Country's biggest fireworks display, known widely as the Night of Fire. He shrugged.

"Okay," he said. "I wasn't here for the last one. Might be fun," he finished, trying and failing to forget why he had missed the last Night of Fire.

**One Year Ago**

_"Don't peek!" She squealed impatiently as the brunette's hands fumbled at the bandana tied around his eyes. A deep laugh echoed across the room, issued from the throat of a young man in a recliner._

_"Temari, how long does it take to put on a kimono? We're going to miss the fireworks display!" He called from his comfortable position in the chair. He heard a sigh._

_"Don't rush me," she said. He heard the rustling of fabric draw closer to him and hands close around his. Temari pulled Shikamaru full out of the chair into a standing position. "Are you ready?" She breathed excitedly. Shikamaru nodded._

_"Seeing as I have been waiting for-" But how long he had been waiting was not found out because in that moment, Temari removed the bandana and Shikamaru was left momentarily speechless. Temari was dressed, shoulder to floor, in a sweeping metallic teal kimono. It was tied at the hips with a silver sash that complimented the white and silver lilies printed all over it. Temari smirked at the look on Shikamaru's silent face._

_"It seems the thinker of great thoughts has blanched," she said with a grin. She wound her arms around his neck, twirling a finger in the hair at the nape of his neck, her teal kimono meshing with his less elaborate green one. He brought up his hand to brush through her honey blonde hair, which she had left loose for this special occasion._

_"This is my village, and here you are trying to show me up in appearances on Independence Day," he said with a laugh that slowly deepened. His lips lowered to meet hers, already moist and waiting. She kissed him for a moment before licking subtly at his lower lip, which immediately parted to give her access to his mouth. The hand that was softly pushing her hair back from her brow lowered to the back of her head and tangled forcefully in her hair. The arm around her waist tightened, crushing their bodies together, causing both parties' breathing to catch slightly in their throat._

_"You know," Temari started when she pulled back. Shikamaru, at a loss for lips to kiss lowered his head to her neck, causing her to stumble over her words. "You could always keep that from happening by doing two things." Shikamaru's hand dropped from her hair to her shoulder where it pushed the kimono from the pale, silky skin._

_"And how is that?" He whispered against her skin, lowering the kimono further to suck at her collarbone._

_"Take it off of me," she said, half an offer, half a command. "And then keep me busy through the fireworks." He groaned his approval of this plan before picking her up and carrying her to his room._


End file.
